Data acceptance procedures and Levels of Service at the National Snow and Ice Data Center

All data are not created equal. Individual data sets vary from each other in a multitude of ways - from easily measured ways such as size, format, and complexity; to ways that require a more nuanced understanding, such as in the breadth and depth of a data set\´s potential user base, its "designated community" to use the terminology of the Reference Model for an Open Archival Information System. Given limitations in the resources available, it is not surprising then that repositories, such as those of the National Snow and Ice Data Center, need to make choices about the level of support or services provided for each data set acquired. Such choices prioritize center activities. While such decisions have been an implicit part of NSIDC activities for many years, an effort was recently taken to explicitly define the Levels of Service supported at NSIDC. Baseline Levels of Service have been defined for all existing NSIDC data sets. In addition, Levels of Service considerations are a major component of the NSIDC Distributed Active Archive Center\´s (DAAC\´s) new data accessioning and data review processes. In this paper we describe the Levels of Service currently supported at NSIDC and factors that affect the effort required to obtain a given level of service. We also discuss the process users should use if they wish to request that the NSIDC DAAC archive their data.